


Their Humble Abodes

by villainsarebetter (darkling59)



Series: Monster Month [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Creature Fic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-28 21:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkling59/pseuds/villainsarebetter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When new guardian angel Belle is assigned to watch over and guide a human destined to be an agent of heaven, she runs into some complications in the form of Rumpelstiltskin; a demon sent to guide her charge in the opposite direction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thursday Part 2!
> 
> This one’s a bit shorter than the others, and I didn’t really manage to encompass the universe that grew from the original concept, but I like it. Also, looks like today is the day for human-ish monsters!

As a guardian angel in training, still within the first decade of her service, Belle was at the very bottom of the heavenly totem pole. Even the cupids were above her in rank, and she never felt that so much as now, when she’d been forced to wait in line behind her ‘superiors’ for many, many hours before she could submit her report and receive her new assignment, even though she’d been an hour early.

As a result, now she was running late. Her bright white wings flared out to either side as she flew hurriedly through the human city, halo hooked over one arm so she wouldn’t lose it in her mad dash, dodging birds and pedestrians with nary a glance. They couldn’t really see her, of course; her form was only physical if she willed it so; but she didn’t like occupying the same space as physical beings. It felt…wrong.

She finally reached her destination; a small park in the middle of a city in Maine, USA. The park wasn’t very impressive; what grass had managed to survive the pollution and lack of care was brown and scratchy, the trees were gnarled and leafless, and the benches were rusty and stained with graffiti. Belle landed on the edge of a small fountain bearing the likeness of a leaping fish. Once, water would have spouted from its mouth, but it had been many years since it had been used; now, the stone was cracked and the intricate details of the carving were worn smooth.

As the young angel took a moment to catch her breath and set her robes to rights, ready to encounter her new charge and decide whether to reveal herself, a long, slow clap interrupted her. She stiffened when a high pitched, mocking voice emanated from the nearest dead tree, where a figure lurked in one of the lower branches like an oddly shaped gargoyle.

“That was quite the landing, dearie.” The voice drawled.

Abruptly, Belle’s shoulders relaxed and she rolled her eyes. “Hello to you too, Rumpelstiltskin.”

A pregnant pause, and she realized she’d surprised him.

There was a quiet shuffle-thump as he tipped himself out of the tree in a controlled fall, landing crouched on all fours.

“What, no more screaming in fear? Demands to leave you to your holy task?” He mocked.

She laughed. “I never screamed in fear, Demon. Besides, you’re not so bad.”

“Oh, I assure you I am.” Now he sounded offended, and she had to swallow her laugh as she finally turned to face him.

The small demon was still crouched on the ground, now glowering at her. A set of short black horns protruded from the thick grey and brown hair on top of his head, matching bat-like wings that were currently folded against his back. He also had a long, thin tail with an arrow-head shape at the very tip which was lashing much like that of a miffed cat. Despite his narrowed eyes with their slit pupils and the forked trident resting in the crook of his arm, she was neither intimidated nor angered by his presence.

Instead, she smiled at him softly. “If you were that bad, you would have left that puppy to die.”

“…You promised never to mention that.”

“Oh, right. Of course not.”

Now he just looked annoyed and she smothered a smile. She’d been legitimately terrified of the demon the first time they met, absolutely certain he was going to murder her charge and condemn her soul to the pits of hell. It hadn’t quite gone as she’d expected, and the handful of times she’d encountered him since then had been similar: mocking and threatening, but with little actual bite to back up his bark.

And then, of course, the puppy incident happened.

She was never going to be scared of him again.

“What brings you here, Rumpelstiltskin?” She inquired politely, setting her halo above her head and then reaching for her phone. It would be able to tell her where to meet her charge.

“New charge.” He growled, still sounding disgruntled. Not sulky. If Belle thought of a demon - especially this demon - as sulky, she would never stop laughing.

“Oh?” There was the familiar twinge of pity that Belle felt whenever she found out an agent of hell was targeting a human, but she pushed it down. She would save everyone she could, but the soul she’d been assigned took priority.

“Mhm.” He grunted and stood up, subtly using the handle of his trident to compensate for his bad ankle. “You as well, I assume.”

“Yes.” Belle finally opened the correct app and began scanning.

“What is that infernal device?” She heard him wander closer and spared enough time to shoot him a quizzical glance.

“…A cell phone?”

“Since when do angels use cell phones?”

“Since it’s the year 2015.” He scoffed and she rolled her eyes. “It makes it a lot easier to find your charge.”

He scoffed again. “I don’t need a cell phone to find my charge.” He sneered. “I can smell her.”

“I’m sure you can.” Demons had a very good sense of smell, but it wasn’t infallible, especially in a city such as this. Belle had more faith in her phone.

“There, see?” He preened and she looked up, noticing a human approaching from the sidewalk outside the park. A young woman with long blond hair, head bowed and upper body all but buried in a long coat and scarf. “That is my target. Miss Emma Swan.”

Belle froze. “Wait, what?”

He quirked an eyebrow.

“But…my charge is supposed to be…” She flicked back to the first screen of the tracking app and the name blinking at her in bold black letters. “Emma Swan?”

Angel and demon bent their heads together to look at the device in puzzlement, then up at the young woman approaching. Physically, she looked considerably different from either of their normal target types and metaphysically, her soul was a roiling mass of white and grey, with a hint of black every now and then. Normally, a target of heaven would have a fully white soul, while a target of hell would have a black soul. If both were found within the same soul, particularly accompanied by grey, then that meant a human was not suitable for their kind of guidance.

“There must be a mistake…?” Belle wondered out loud, uneasy.

Rumpelstiltskin merely cocked his head, resting the head of his trident back against his shoulder and observing the young woman with his inhuman eyes as she all but collapsed on the bench next to them, sniffling. He noticed what Belle had overlooked in her inexperience; there was more than one soul present, and the second one was pure and still not fully formed. Emma Swan was pregnant.

And, possibly even more interesting, the white that was in her soul was not natural. He’d been around for almost five centuries and he knew what was possible for a human, and what was not.

Emma Swan was not normal. Something had marked her long ago, influenced the shape of her soul, and he couldn’t tell what it was.

“How very curious.” He murmured, watching as the woman buried her face in her hands, shaking.

Then he shrugged and twisted his trident with a flourish.

Time to get to work. **  
**

* * *

**Notes on this universe:**

-This world is full of hidden supernatural creatures, and Emma is destined to get involved with them, but at the moment she does not know they exist. It is loosely inspired by the TV shows ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

-Normally, angels and demons are deathly enemies, and no one would ever expect them to be near each other without trying to kill each other, regardless of the toll on the surrounding humans.

-Belle and Rumple become Emma’s shoulder angel and demon, present to ostensibly guide her through her toughest decisions. (And yes, both would be about three inches tall in that capacity.)

-The decision Emma is having trouble with in this scene is whether or not to keep her baby.

-Emma thinks Rumple and Belle are manifestations of her imagination after she meets them - she is NOT amused when she finally finds out they are real, separate beings.


	2. Prompt 1

**Prompt** : @Anonymous. Demon!Rumple convinces Angel!Belle to share a sip of (whatever he keeps in his hip flask) with him.

* * *

 It took a month as Emma’s guardian shoulder angel for Belle to realize her demonic counterpart had a flask, a shiny little thing the same deep black as his horns, carved into a curved organic shape, more like some beast’s fang than any man-made metal. It was half the size of his hand and the open end was plugged by obsidian and inlaid with a golden spout. The entire thing was engraved with a tracery of silver and gold runes spiraling from the pointed bottom to the spout of the flask.

It looked downright _sinister_.

At first, Belle side-eyed him every time she saw it, wondering what was inside and what the demon intended to do with it. She knew him well enough to realize he wasn’t as violent or malevolent as he wanted people to believe, but he was still a _demon_. What good reason could he have to possess something so… _evil_?

Was it poison? A potion? Some concoction of hell meant to control his targets? Venom? It looked like a fang, maybe whatever beast it came from was poisonous. Blood? She’d never put stock in those rumors that demons collected the blood of virgins, but maybe…

Then she saw him drink from it.

In fact, he made a habit of it.

It took a while for her to notice, simply because their positions on the opposite shoulders of their charge made it difficult to see him. But once Emma realized she could displace them, that she did not _have_ to have them standing on her shoulders, speaking into her ears and driving her to distraction, they found themselves ousted from the traditional positions, standing instead on shelves, counter tops, tables…whatever got them closest to Emma’s level. (Belle went quietly. Rumpelstiltskin not so much - he made a nuisance of himself teleporting back to his original position until Emma finally managed to knock him into a coffee can and trap him inside. She lost her car keys every day that month, broke fifteen different pairs of sunglasses, and her wallet mysteriously vanished over a dozen times, but Rumpelstiltskin didn’t try to get back on her shoulder.)

They still stayed small to continue their respective missions; there was no room for more than one person in Emma’s apartment, and remaining on the metaphysical plane at full size would take them out of contact with Emma. It was mildly annoying, and it meant that they spent considerably more time separate from Emma and in each other’s company. It gave Belle many more glimpses of the little flask, flashes of it rising to Rumpelstiltskin’s mouth before he secreted it away again. It didn’t seem to do anything _bad_ and eventually her suspicion waned and curiosity took its place. Whenever she wasn’t guiding Emma (who didn’t seem all that interested in following Belle’s _or_ Rumpelstiltskin’s advice anyway), the curiosity ate away at her. It didn’t help that she caught glimpses of it at least half a dozen times a day.

Until, one day, she found the little flask lying alone in a corner, with no demon in sight.

She stared at it, tracing the runes with her eyes and the obsidian and gold that hid whatever was inside.

She shouldn’t touch it. She _knew_ she shouldn’t touch it. It was a _demon’s flask_. Nothing _good_ could come from touching it.

…But she was _curious_.

And one tiny look couldn’t hurt anything, could it?

“My, my…stealing, dearie? What _would_ your superiors say?”

Belle jumped and whirled, dropping the flask in her guilty surprise. It was caught in one clawed hand before it could spill so much as a drop and Rumpelstiltskin grinned at her with sharp teeth from less than a foot away, eyes dancing with dark amusement.

“I wasn’t stealing it! I was just curious…” She defended weakly.

He smirked and tossed back the flask, draining it in a gulp…and listening to the slosh of liquid as it was immediately full again. Then he held it out, dangling on one finger, and raised an eyebrow at the young angel.

“Care for a taste?”

She scoffed. “Of course not. What is it?” There was no real contempt in her tone, as any of her peers would have had in her situation. Her eyes didn’t shift from the flask.

“If you don’t try it, how will you know?”

“I know better, demon.”

He staggered back, free hand on his chest and wings flipping back in a theatrical imitation of being struck. “That _hurts_ , truly.” He mocked. “I do believe you know me better than that.”

Belle’s wings fluttered with indecision.

“And you won’t tell me what it is?”

He snorted and swung the flask in front of her face. “And why would I do that, my dear?” With a flick of his wrist, the flask was in his hand and he was ready to tuck it away. “But if you don’t _want_ to know…”

“Wait!” It had been driving her bonkers for weeks. And she knew he wouldn’t hurt her…how bad could it be? “Do you swear it is not poisonous, and that I will be safe if I drink it?”

He snorted. "If it was, it would be just as damaging to me, wouldn’t it?”

That was true. Angels and demons, for all that they were opposite, tended to be vulnerable to the same sorts of magic and poisons.

“…Just a sip?” She finally caved and he grinned, holding out the flask.

It was oddly warm in her hand, and the conical shape was strange to hold. With some trepidation, she unhooked the golden cap and tipped the container up until a trickle of liquid passed her lips.

It tasted…odd. A little bitter, a little sweet, with a faint aftertaste of mint, anise, and something fruity. Without thinking, she took a larger gulp and the burn of alcohol hit her _hard_.

She doubled over coughing and the demon started laughing.

“What…what _is_ that?” She croaked.

Rumpelstiltskin thumped her on the back in ‘assistance’, just a little too cheerful to be sympathetic.

“My own special brew. Absinthe, catswort, blood orange…plus a few additions of my own creation.”

Belle scowled at him through her coughs. She didn’t know much about what he’d said, but she _did_ know absinthe was supposed to be extremely alcoholic. He’d tricked her!

She was coughing too hard to make a comeback. Instead, she mantled her wings, instinctively warning him away with her body language, and fluttered away. She imagined she could already feel the mind-altering effects contorting her flight path.

Rumpelstiltskin watched her fly away with amusement, taking another long swig form his flask in the process. Tempting the young angel for the past month by playing with her curiosity had certainly been an amusing pastime, though he doubted she would come anywhere near his flask again. He wondered how long it would take for someone to tell her that angels could not get drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! :)
> 
> (I'm still dealing with the fallout from the car accident, but I should be able to answer all of the comments on all of the posted prompts tonight. Thank you for your patience!)


End file.
